Last week I was pleased to attend the Utility Week Live exhibition in Birmingham, just around the corner from Consult Energy’s offices. It was a fantastic opportunity to explore the utility sector’s latest trends and challenges with others in the industry, making new connections and catching up with some familiar faces.

In all of the speeches and seminars I attended and the discussions I had with business leaders, a common talking point was in how to attract great new professionals into the sector. With 106,000 utility and energy professionals across all areas of the sector projected to retire by 2030 and the industry set to expand rapidly, new and fresh approaches to attracting talent to the utilities sector was a major talking point in nearly all of the discussions I had at the exhibition.

We’ve already come a long way in making the sector a more attractive place to work in, with new technology being embraced and the energy transition creating new opportunities. However, can the utilities sector, as a whole, be doing more?

Future Leaders Club

The keynote speech that really stood out to me and facilitated a lot of these debates was Utility Week’s Future Leaders Club. The Future Leaders Club are a network of 20 young professionals selected from across the utilities sector who have committed to driving innovation and sustainability in their businesses.

At the event, “The future is here - insights from tomorrow’s leaders” panel included Future Leaders Club members, Sagar Depala, Emily Smith and Harshil Sumaria, who offered fascinating insights into how the sector can improve in obtaining the best talent. So, it’s their points of view and my own opinions through talking with other business leaders that I want to explore further in this short key takeaways article!

Creating a purpose-driven work

One of the points raised was this idea that the utility sector needs to improve on highlighting the purpose-driven work available in the sector in order to attract more professionals. In my experience, when I am speaking to individuals new to the industry, this can be a real selling point to them.

Purpose-driven work can include:

• Creating meaningful impact

The energy transition is a majorly appealing point among candidates and professionals interested in the utilities sector because the industry is playing a key role in driving change in society and making a difference to the world that we live in. By getting involved in utilities, professionals can contribute to decarbonisation, renewable energy expansion and help businesses reach sustainability goals.

• Providing public good

In my experience, early on in my recruitment career, people were (and to some extent still do!) only connecting utilities services with bad things, such as poor customer service and companies that don’t get your bill right time and time again. However, the sector is beginning to revamp its public image at least to an extent. The utility needs to become synonymous with making a meaningful impact on our society, on individuals lives by providing key services, as well as on the world. Doing so will help people connect with the sector in a much more positive way.

Driving innovation through digital transformation

The digitalisation of the utility sector is actively creating routes for professionals from other industries, such as tech and finance, to fill much-needed skills and roles within the sector. As the utility sector embraces greater technological advances, this is creating exciting opportunities for new and current professionals.

In particular, we are seeing the rise of smart technologies in the industry. Through integrating the Internet of Things, AI, and the creation of smart grids all helps to make utility professionals’ roles easier and more efficient, as well as opening up further job opportunities in the sector for data analysts and engineers. By bringing the wealth and variety of roles available, to the public’s attention the utility sector will be able to easily attract more professionals.

Promoting career development

One of the points mentioned in the panel was the importance of advertising the career development opportunities within the sector in order to attract the next generation into the workforce.

The utility sector is experiencing a significant skills shortage due to 17% of the workforce retiring by 2030, however, the flip side of this fact is that this exodus is creating extensive growth opportunities for current and future employees as they will need to upskill quickly to fill these outgoing positions. Combined with the large-scale growth and transformation projects predicted in the sector, there are lots of development opportunities for newcomers to the industry.

All of these changes and transformations also mean that salaries are rapidly rising, particularly for certain niche skillsets. As utility specialist recruiters working with leading utility business owners, we need to be promoting these advantages effectively and using it as a call to arms in our recruitment campaigns in order to secure the best.

Is the utility sector doing enough?

From my discussions with other business leaders at the Utility Week Live exhibition and what I have seen through my role at Consult Energy where I speak with hiring managers and business leaders every day, more needs to be done to educate individuals on the benefits of working in utilities.

It is clear that the utility sector needs to work on connecting with those outside of the industry, whether that’s through using social media or increasing outreach programmes to schools and universities. Companies in the utilities sector need to promote the meaningful change and impact they are having on the UK and the world, as well as the exciting job prospects available for professionals.

If your utilities organisation is looking for expert and tailored utility recruitment solutions, Consult Energy is a specialist utility recruitment agency who will be happy to explore options with you. For more information, get in touch with our team here.